The Ukrainian Old Lion Publishing House launches print-on-demand project

The Old Lion Publishing House has introduced a new initiative called “We’ll Print for You”, allowing readers to request reprints of titles that are no longer available in stores. 

“Imagine really wanting to read a certain book — maybe one published long ago, something deeply meaningful to you — but it’s out of stock. We know that feeling, because we love good books too. That’s why we’re launching a new way to make them accessible again — even if the original print run has long sold out,” the publisher wrote.

According to Anna Shymanska, event manager at The Old Lion Publishing House, the project was born in response to numerous reader requests to bring back out-of-print titles.

“We were looking for a way to help readers get books they’ve been searching for but can’t find in bookstores. We decided on digital printing, which allows us to produce exactly the number of copies we need — whether that’s five, twenty, or a hundred,” Shymanska told Chytomo.

The selection of titles eligible for special-order reprint was based on comments and messages from readers on social media, as well as email subscriptions to notifications about books returning to stock on the publisher’s website.

The publisher had to take into account whether it still held the rights to publish certain books, as many requests were for titles released a long time ago — in some cases, The Old Lion Publishing House couldn’t fulfill the order.

Currently, ten titles are available for special-order printing, including:

• “Cardboard Castles” by Mark Axelrod
• “Into Thin Air” by Jon Krakauer
• “300 Miles East. Book 3” by Bohdan Kolomiychuk
• “Crimean Fig. Chair”
• “Shadows” by Marichka Kryzhanivska
• “My Journey to the Land of the Marines” by Andriy Zelinskyi
• “Crimean Fig. Demirci”
• “Crimean Fig”
• “Mozart from Lemberg” by Bohdan Kolomiychuk
• “140 Decibels of Silence” by Andriy Bachynskyi

Shymanska noted that the list of available titles may expand in the future, depending on similar factors — such as copyright status and whether the book’s format and illustrations are suitable for digital reproduction.

The project has already received over a hundred orders.

RELATED: The Old Lion Publishing House is on the short list of the best children’s publishers of the year according to Bologna

Copy editing: Joy Tataryn